If we want we could offer Vanek for $2.5 (put him on the third line) and still have cap room.

Let Galchenyuk have a year at Centre, give him a real chance to prove himself. If it works great. If it doesn't - move on. Maybe make a move at the deadline if he hasn't...

A strong blueline means the puck is in the other zone more than it is ours. A strong defence then lets the offensive guys play more offence, and guys like Galcehnyuk can worry less about defence and do what they do best.

Gagner isn't a bad idea for C. A half-decently productive playmaking C. IF the team finally comes to its senses and stops trying to turn Galy into Doug Jarvis, the FW configuration is at least serviceable. What worries me about Gagner is thought that we'd have to give him term. He's not a convincing longer-term option. I think he may also cost more than 2.5.

Shattenkirk on D would be great, but has a faint whiff of pie-in-the-sky.

The best thing about that roster is that Pleks and Emelin are no longer on it. That would show a management group able to do a bit of forward thinking for once.

I think you're well under on a couple of these. Galchenyuk's QO is $3.2 million, he's not taking a $300,000 raise. His new deal is going to be in the $6 million range (unless it's a one year deal in the mid-4's). As for Beaulieu/Nesterov at $2 million combined, Beaulieu's deal will surpass that easily on his own. I haven't looked at the numbers too closely yet to project him out but I imagine a new deal for him will start with a 3. Nesterov will come cheap but honestly I'm not sure he's even qualified. (I suspect they're hoping he signs overseas soon so they can qualify him and hold his rights as an RFA.)

Gagner is a weird case. He was great early on and then fell off a cliff in the second half. He also spent a lot of time on the wing thanks to defensive issues (and likely a below average faceoff rate). The year before that he was almost exclusively a winger. I'm not sure he's really a solution if you're looking at him as a centre.

I think you're a bit low on Shattenkirk (he already turned down $6 million per from TB in sign-and-trade talks and their tax situation is a lot better than Montreal's). I don't think he really fits in either as they already have Weber/Petry on that side. Can the Habs really afford a third pairing blueliner making at least $5.5 million? Or do they want to pay someone that much to play on his wrong side and somewhat negate his effectiveness?

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Galchenyuk is an RFA. He's not getting 6, unless Montreal signs him long term. I don't think he has proven he is worth it yet. Qualifying offer, then he gets what he is worth next year. It a gamble for the Habs but well worth it if it lets the team add to the lineup this year.

As for Beaulieu, I am willing to lose him if he wants more than $1.5 at this point.

Gagner is a big question mark...but could be a pleasant surprise. Mind you, Montreal hasn't had much luck with this type of player.

I don't think Shattenkirk gets more than Weber. But even if it takes a little more, we have some room (A little).

And I believe Weber, Shattenkirk, Petry and Markov work as a top 4. I believe Petry has played both sides.

Galchenyuk is an RFA. He's not getting 6, unless Montreal signs him long term. I don't think he has proven he is worth it yet. Qualifying offer, then he gets what he is worth next year. It a gamble for the Habs but well worth it if it lets the team add to the lineup this year.

As for Beaulieu, I am willing to lose him if he wants more than $1.5 at this point.

Gagner is a big question mark...but could be a pleasant surprise. Mind you, Montreal hasn't had much luck with this type of player.

I don't think Shattenkirk gets more than Weber. But even if it takes a little more, we have some room (A little).

And I believe Weber, Shattenkirk, Petry and Markov work as a top 4. I believe Petry has played both sides.

If I'm MB and can sign galchenyuk for 8 years at $6m, I get him to sign before he has a chance to reconsider.

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Galchenyuk is an RFA. He's not getting 6, unless Montreal signs him long term. I don't think he has proven he is worth it yet. Qualifying offer, then he gets what he is worth next year. It a gamble for the Habs but well worth it if it lets the team add to the lineup this year.

As for Beaulieu, I am willing to lose him if he wants more than $1.5 at this point.

Even on a one year deal, Galchenyuk gets a minimum of something starting with a 4, if not higher. He's not going to choose to take close to his qualifying offer. He has arbitration rights and there are plenty of higher comparables out there to use that will yield a higher award than the 3.5 you suggested so he'd go that route before just accepting a $300k raise. He's a year past getting 30 goals, those players aren't getting $3.5 million with arbitration eligibility.

I'm not a huge Beaulieu fan but he's easily getting double that (unless he takes a one year deal, maybe then it's high 2's). He had 28 points and fits the mobile style that the league is trending towards. He also played #4 minutes and players that have stats of top-four blueliners (whether or not we agree that he is one) will do better than that in arbitration and he also has that eligibility.

35 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

If I'm MB and can sign galchenyuk for 8 years at $6m, I get him to sign before he has a chance to reconsider.

I'm sure Bergevin would like to do that. I don't see why Galchenyuk would though. I think 5 or 6 years in that money range could be doable but max term (and 6 UFA years) will up the AAV past that for sure.

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Galchenyuk is an RFA. He's not getting 6, unless Montreal signs him long term. I don't think he has proven he is worth it yet. Qualifying offer, then he gets what he is worth next year. It a gamble for the Habs but well worth it if it lets the team add to the lineup this year.

As for Beaulieu, I am willing to lose him if he wants more than $1.5 at this point.

Gagner is a big question mark...but could be a pleasant surprise. Mind you, Montreal hasn't had much luck with this type of player.

I don't think Shattenkirk gets more than Weber. But even if it takes a little more, we have some room (A little).

And I believe Weber, Shattenkirk, Petry and Markov work as a top 4. I believe Petry has played both sides.

Galchenyuk has arbitration rights. His comparables are 5-6. He could very well get 6 just by forcing the habs into arbitration.

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The numbers point to Beaulieu as a top four guy and arbitration awards are basically based off the numbers. Top four guys don't often come in below that even though we are talking an RFA year here. This isn't his bridge deal where he'll come in a bit cheaper potentially - that's done now and after being on what was a pretty team-friendly contract before, I think he'll push to get paid (assuming he's still around, of course).

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See that's the thing. I don't think we need Beaulieu. There are plenty of other D available who can offer what he has given the Habs so far. Would we really miss him? Look how long we hung on to Desharnais. Will we ver miss him? We aren't talking a future Rangers captain here, we are talking Beaulieu. If he walks a young gun gets more playing time. If you look above, I don't even have him cracking our top 6. Of course, I am going after another top pairing D (in this case Shattenkirk), which moves everyone but Weber down a notch.

I know everyone goes on and on about our need for a Top Line Centre, and I get it. But I really believe if we build from the net out we will discover we are stronger up front than we think. And building from the net out, doesn't mean the goaltender. It means getting the puck out of your zone as fast as you can and letting your forwards work their magic in the other end. If you are stuck in your zone all night then your goalie hasn't to stand on his head all the time.

Think Robinson, Savard, Lapointe, etc. LaFleur and Shutt had a field day. Pierre Larouche scored 50 goals. Dryden made the big saves, but the D transitioned the puck up ice so fast, and kept it there, that other teams didn't have a chance.

Weber is a great D, but he needs another guy on his pairing. Markov is still the smartest guy on the ice but he is slowing down. Petry plays best when he doesn't have to be THE GUY. Sure, Emelin can hit, and make guys uncomfortable in front of our net - but he isn't going to get the puck out of our zone. And, I'd rather not have to worry about guys in front of OUR net, because the puck is in the other team's zone!

Is Shattenkirk the guy - maybe, maybe not, but he is an option.

Is Gagner the guy, probably not, but then again let him play 70% of the time in the offensive zone and we might just be pleasantly surprised.

The thing is, great team's built on defence first are best when they are getting the puck up ice rather than scrambling around in their own zone.

Just think how great a Centre Galnchenyuk could be if he didn't have to worry about playing defence in his own zone. It worked for LaFleur and Richer...

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Petry is a RHD who has played less than 5 career games on the Left Side

Shattenkirk is a RHD who has never played on the Left side.

You can't just take a person and play him out of position and assume you are getting the same player. People who have looked at D on their off side, see that on average they lose about 5% effectiveness in possession numbers. They also found that LHD moving to the right is easier than RHD moving left. This is probably because there are more LHD than RHD, so growing up they may have gotten experience on their off-side, where the RHD don't.

Add to this the fact that Shattenkirk is heavily, heavily, heavily rumored to go play close to home with one of the New York teams. He likely isn't even considering Montreal. Its a pipe dream. Its like when Vanek wanted to go to Minnesota, cause his wife, no one else stood a chance. Same thing here. Shattenkirk has already turned down big money in Tampa. He's not coming to Montreal.

Petry is a RHD who has played less than 5 career games on the Left Side

Shattenkirk is a RHD who has never played on the Left side.

You can't just take a person and play him out of position and assume you are getting the same player. People who have looked at D on their off side, see that on average they lose about 5% effectiveness in possession numbers. They also found that LHD moving to the right is easier than RHD moving left. This is probably because there are more LHD than RHD, so growing up they may have gotten experience on their off-side, where the RHD don't.

Add to this the fact that Shattenkirk is heavily, heavily, heavily rumored to go play close to home with one of the New York teams. He likely isn't even considering Montreal. Its a pipe dream. Its like when Vanek wanted to go to Minnesota, cause his wife, no one else stood a chance. Same thing here. Shattenkirk has already turned down big money in Tampa. He's not coming to Montreal.

The RD thing settles it. No Shattenkirk.

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Not looking for a fight, just looking at options (do we want to win or not? Or are we happy to say - oh well it is the best that we can do) but if you took the time to read my post, I clearly said - Maybe Shattenkirk is the guy, maybe he isn't - what we need is a top pairing D to play with Webber.

And we have 6 or 7 million a season to find one if we play our cards right.

(And yes, still sign Carey to 10mil a season. And have $$ for Galchenyuk. 2018-19 might be a little tight, but the cap won't stay flat three years in a row. And Markov will be retired by 2019-20.)

Not looking for a fight, just looking at options (do we want to win or not? Or are we happy to say - oh well it is the best that we can do) but if you took the time to read my post, I clearly said - Maybe Shattenkirk is the guy, maybe he isn't - what we need is a top pairing D to play with Webber.

And we have 6 or 7 million a season to find one if we play our cards right.

(And yes, still sign Carey to 10mil a season. And have $$ for Galchenyuk. 2018-19 might be a little tight, but the cap won't stay flat three years in a row. And Markov will be retired by 2019-20.)

You are dead right that the D is alarmingly fragile for a team with a dubious FW corps. It needs an upgrade. But the LD/ RD thing is really important. What we need is a top-4 puck-moving LD - sort of a left-shooting Petry. That should be Beaulieu, but of course he is another case of a young guy the Habs just couldn't 'get through to' (which is of course all his fault, since management never takes responsibility for anything). The point is, suggestions for upgrading the D need to focus on LD.